and then they could choose what they wanted to use to make their own self-portrait. I gave them some basic drawing tips on the shape of the human head (more egg than circle!) and we looked at how far up/down the eyes are (half way) which they found surprising, then the bottom of the nose and the mouth. I set them up in front of mirrors and off they went!

Monday, 12 January 2015

I had planned that we would work for quite a bit of December last year, maybe finishing the last few things in the week beginning the 15th, but it just wasn't to be. I should have known when in September I saw other people settling back to school but planning to stop for all of December and feeling a bit sorry that I hadn't worked our schedule similarly. I needn't have felt like that though because I fell ill at the end of November and after a bad experience in 2013 of falling ill and ending up with no voice for a month (gulp!) I (reluctantly!) decided to give in gracefully, tie up the last loose ends and pack away the books early. This turned out to be the right thing to do - I recovered and only struggled with my voice for a few weeks, rather than losing it completely.
So, what to do with that extra time? Well, this for a start:

Baking snowmen cakes for neighbours and people who help the kids in one way or another (Brownie and Guide leaders, sports coaches, Sunday school teachers etc):

Christmas doodle books retrieved from the Advent box:

Freezing saucers of water and leaves overnight in the garden to make ice suncatchers for the next day:

Baking more cakes and decorating them for visitors:

Having fun at Brownies:

Building a den in the garden with friends:

What gradually happened through the month is that I realised we were spending much of the month serving others in one way or another. This was a much better use of time than anything I had planned :-) and I hope it can become something we do annually.

Thursday, 8 January 2015

I determined over the summer 2014 that we would meet up more with other homeschoolers and that I would make a concerted effort to grab more opportunities which came our way. We ended up doing all kinds of things I couldn't have foreseen - here's a glimpse:

In September I ran our annual Fun Games Day for a few local families, which is loosely based on a school Sports Day, but there are no races and it's more about fun than physical prowess!

We also joined a group of other homeschoolers and visited a local stately home.

In October we went to see a showing of the BBC's 10 pieces at a local cinema with some of the homeschoolers we had gone to the stately home with, and the following week we went to the Primary Proms at the Royal Albert Hall where we met a lot of homeschoolers - some new faces and some familiar.

The day after I ran our annual Scavenger Hunt for a few local families and we celebrated dd2's 9th birthday!

The following week we met up with some other families and went to visit a fire station:

I also made a commitment (to myself, really!) to get along to a group which meets weekly about an hour from us. Realistically we could only go there every fortnight, which we managed, more or less and we had some very enjoyable times there doing some craft activities and building friendships (for the girls and for me).

With the exception of the fortnightly local group meetings, all these events were free! The local group asks for £2 donation and we made donations at the fire station and the stately home (I think!). Obviously there are travel costs involved in most of these events, and for us we also had to pay for a dog walker when we went to London, but I'm very glad that I made the effort to do these things with other homeschoolers and to give myself and the girls some time amongst like-minded families rather than our usual diet of the three of us at home or spending time with schooled children. I have already signed up for a few more events in 2015.

I can't finish this post without explaining how I came across all these events, when I hadn't found much going on locally before; joining a local HE group on facebook has made all the difference - it was really as simple as that!